What a great time it was! I treated myself to a little trip to Texas for the Spartan Super race and a day or three off from work. (Sorry, no library stuff this time. It’s all about the birthday boy in this week’s post.)

“So Justin, how did your race go?”

It went great, voice in my head! Let’s roll some highlight photos of race time!

I ran the race outside Austin with my sweetie Heather and her friends Dana/Keith/some other guys who slip my mind right now. It was Heather’s first mud race, and it went well!

Made me some new friends!

Now those of you who have followed me for awhile know that these dangerous races are kind of my jam. Swamp Dash, Superhero Scramble, Tough Mudder, Zombie Dash, I’ve ran me plenty. This was by far the toughest one I’ve ran – I wasn’t expecting 2 miles UP A MOUNTAIN.

After-race dirty!

It wasn’t difficult in the “test your might” kind of way, it was difficult in the “let’s have you run 9 miles (almost 2 up a mountain in the summer Texas heat) and then do a bunch of obstacles at the end.” That wasn’t fun, and that’s not what I sign up for. I have a list of complaints about the Spartan race I ran in Tampa, but I digress.

This medal tested my mettle. (Heehee!)

I really just wish that those who were new to it had gotten a better first impression. Sorry Spartans, but Tough Mudder and Superhero Scramble have you beat.

That mud patch almost looks like an injury.

So, it was indeed my birthday. Like any other day, I went to work, did the usual daily stuff, and came home to a full decorated place. Happy birthday banners! Streamers! Balloons! Presents! Birthday cake! It was amazing.

Some goodies I got include Batman towel holders for when I’m at the pool (I think that was a “you’re too darn pale” hint), Batman swimshorts, pre-workout powder and Deadpool the game! A simple birthday, but one that felt good. All because of a special sweetie!

Now then, enough about me, more about you guys. As time goes on, I’ve been getting more heavily involved in work stuff and I’m learning alot on the technology side. I want to rave more about library technology and products, but I don’t want to alienate my non-library friends as well. I’ve been thinking about consumer electronics, products and services along with social media as future posts ideas. Talk to me people.

Don’t be shy to talk to me about these things, I’ve been feeling a little stagnant lately and want to write about SO much…but the freedom is stifling, give me a wind or two to steer by. You can comment here or on my Facebook page, so give me more ideas on what YOU as a reader want to read about. Next week…I’ll hopefully have some interesting news for you!

Take care, have fun this summer and don’t get too hot 2 MILES UP A MOUNTAIN.

2 Responses to Haaaappy Birthdaaaay to MEEEEE!!!!

Emma thanks for poistng about this subject. Really interesting and sadly all too true. I agree with knihovnik2000 in that within a corporate environment it can be EVEN more difficult to raise awareness of the value of the library/information service. All too often libraries are looked as an overhead when actually the can be a real draw and something to talk to clients about, especially if the library is able to offer services to clients.I also feel that Librarians in corporate organisations need to go beyond their traditional roles and offer more, much more. For example something we’re developing at the moment is training on using LinkedIn and Twitter, definitely not what I would consider a traditional training subject, but what happens when we deliver this training is that we interact with the people who have much more influence within the firm, the partners, the senior associates and the directors.As knihovnik2000 suggests we need to be much more proactive about how we sell ourselves/market ourselves within our work environments, otherwise we’ll just be ignored.